Gallium nitride materials include gallium nitride (GaN) and its alloys such as aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN), indium gallium nitride (InGaN), and aluminum indium gallium nitride (AlInGaN). These materials are semiconductor compounds that have a relatively wide, direct bandgap which permits highly energetic electronic transitions to occur. Such electronic transitions can result in gallium nitride materials having a number of attractive properties including the ability to efficiently emit blue light, the ability to transmit signals at high frequency, and others. Accordingly, gallium nitride materials are being widely investigated in many microelectronic applications such as transistors, field emitters, and optoelectronic devices.